I received this email from the
GLAD AIDS Law Project today. Thought I'd pass it along for the MA folks here. It looks like the budget (now in conference) contains a shortfall in money for AIDS drugs for low-income people. Several months ago,
The Nation published an article on the problems faced by ADAP programs:
s the growing epidemic slams up against state austerity measures, ADAP has descended into crisis, and Republicans in Washington have refused to intervene. As of early October, more than 600 people with HIV have been denied access to medications through the program. Three states have tightened income eligibility requirements; five have restricted the list of drugs they cover, hampering competent treatment; thirteen have capped their programs, leaving the sick to languish on waiting lists. ADAP has served as the payer of last resort since 1987, providing HIV medicines for hundreds of thousands of people with HIV who lack insurance, or whose prescription benefits don't come close to matching the drugs' exorbitant price tag. Most ADAP users are the working poor, earning too much to qualify for Medicaid at jobs that don't provide health plans. Study after study has confirmed that the program saves public-health dollars by preventing expensive hospitalizations--and saves lives. But since February, two people have died while on the West Virginia waiting list, and five more just died on Kentucky's. There are no death tallies for those whose income puts them a few dollars above states' new restrictive income requirements.
Basically, cuts in these programs means that more people die.
The GLAD Action Alert email is below.
Unless we act today, for the first time ever people with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts will have to be put on a wait list for life-saving HIV drugs beginning July 1. People in other states have died while on wait lists - we must not let this happen in Massachusetts!
Please contact your state legislators today!
Get contact info at www.WhereDoIVoteMA.com
or by calling the State House at 617-722-2000.
The Massachusetts HIV Drug Assistance Program is projected to have a shortfall in fiscal year '05, forcing the Department of Public Health to start a wait list for these life-saving drugs. The Legislative Conference Committee is meeting THIS WEEK to make decisions.
CALL NOW!
TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
Ask YOUR legislators to contact the members of the Conference Committee to urge them to:
--Fund the Senate version of the AIDS Line Item (4512-0103) at $31.5M.
--Raise the HIV MassHealth (4000-1400) income eligibility to 200% of the federal poverty level. This would save HDAP $2.2 million as approximately 144 people would move from HDAP to HIV MassHealth.
Please call your state legislators TODAY to let them know you won't tolerate letting people with HIV/AIDS go without the drugs that keep them alive!
Sincerely,
GLAD's AIDS Law Project